Montclair Kimberley Academy hockey team loses to Cranford, slips out of first place

The Montclair Kimberley ice hockey team had a chance to secure a division title for the first time in a decade on Friday night.

But Cranford had other ideas, and the Cougars now need some help if they want to get a division championship this season.

Montclair Kimberley fell behind 3-0 to Cranford on Feb. 3 and then saw a comeback attempt get silenced, as the team fell 6-2 at Clary Anderson Arena in a crucial North Jersey Interscholastic Ice Hockey League Kelly Division clash. The first meeting between the two teams ended in a 5-5 tie on Jan. 9. 

MKA (11-3-2) needs to defeat rival Montclair on Monday, Feb. 6 (4 p.m. at Clary Anderson), and Cranford needs to either lose or tie at home to Frisch, also on Feb. 6, for MKA to at least grab a share of the Kelly title. Frisch beat Cranford, 3-2, earlier in the season, on Dec. 17.

Cranford is now 9-1-1 in the division with 19 points, while Montclair Kimberley is 8-1-2, with 18 points. Both teams have one game remaining in the division.

After falling behind 3-0, the Cougars came back with a pair of goals from sophomore Henry McCann, helped by a 5-on-3 advantage early in the second period.

McCann's second goal, with 7:50 remaining in the second period, was even a surprise to him, as his shot just from inside the red line was initially stopped by Cranford goalie Luke Pitts but would slip behind him.

Unfortunately for Montclair Kimberley, the next 21 seconds saw its hopes for a comeback dashed even though it was only midway through the second period. Cranford's Dylan Borys slipped a shot by Cougars senior goalie Aidan Meeker to increase the Cougar deficit to two goals, 4-2.

"That pretty much took the air out of the tire," MKA assistant coach Bill Bronson said after the game. Bronson is filling in for Cougars head coach Tim Cook who is on paternity leave.

Cranford would score two goals in the third period, and its final goal, where the puck was flipped by Meeker with a second left in the contest, pretty much summed up the day for Montclair Kimberley. For the night Meeker made 30 saves.

The Cougars were without a couple of top players on Friday, including their top scorer, sophomore Nicholas Sykora, and another scorer, junior Gary Hu. 

"We're working to get everybody ready for the playoffs," Bronson said about the upcoming Kelly Cup and state tournaments.

MKA came into the match against Cranford with a five-game winning streak that included a pair of shutouts over Kelly Division rival Frisch.

But despite the streak, Cook said he wasn't entirely happy with the overall play. "We haven't had a steady stream of consistent play," he said.

While Cranford was building its 3-0 lead, Montclair Kimberley had its shots on goal, but was not getting to the goalie.

"We've been working on that in practice," Bronson said. "When we take our shots, we seem to tighten up, and the shots are not pointed at the target."

Instead, the shots hit the boards left or right of the goal. 

Coming into Friday's game, the Cougars had won two crucial division contests, a pair of 4-0 wins over Frisch, to maintain first place before the loss to Cranford.

In the win over Frisch on Jan. 26, Sykora had a big night, registering all four of the Montclair Kimberley goals. Meeker saved all 16 shots on goal.

In the second meeting between the two Kelly Division teams, on Feb. 1 at Clary Anderson Arena, junior Sam Rotella had a pair of goals while freshman Finn MacEvoy and junior Matt Bonarti had a goal each.